WEYBURN - The RM of Weyburn council heard a presentation at Friday’s meeting by environmental specialist Rose McInnes, who is also an RM resident, opposing the proposed wind turbine project by Enbridge in the RMs of Weyburn and Griffin.
She outlined the environmental hazards the turbines will pose for the RMs, knowing that Enbridge wants to amend the height restriction currently in place in the zoning bylaw. This request by Enbridge did not come up at Friday’s meeting.
The impact of the turbines would be wide-ranging, she said, from killing earthworms and insects, to birds and farm animals, with the negative impact on earthworms to have a “cascading effect” on other parts of the ecosystem.
“With the increased size of turbines, the effects on humans can be felt up to 15 km away,” said MacInnes, who set up a model of a turbine with a house to show the scale of how big the turbine will seem from 1,000 metres away.
In the event of bird strikes by the big fan arms, she asked Enbridge what they would do, and said she was told they could turn the fan speed down. If that didn’t work, she said, their answer was, “We’ll do our best to mitigate the situation.”
MacInnes noted there are rare and endangered species of birds who fly through the region where the turbines are proposed to go.
She noted that Enrbridge would only go once a week through the area to look for bird fatalities – but the problem is, she said, the coyotes are in her vicinity every night, so in a week’s time, there would be nothing left.
Looking at the numbers, the revenues to the RM won’t be as good as they thought. Since Enbridge relocated some of the turbines, there will now be 27 of them in Griffin, and 19 in the RM of Weyburn, with Weyburn to receive annual revenues of $187,000.
With a decrease in property values, caused by the presence of the wind turbines, that amount would drop to an estimated $154,037.
She also accused Enbridge of a lack of transparency, and noted the company stated a wish to abide by local laws and policies, yet they are trying to amend the height restrictions on the turbines.
